We live in a results oriented society. Everyone’s worried about the end product – increase in sales, profitability, the bottom line.
And even though achieving results isn’t a bad thing, focusing solely on the end result CAN prevent you from reaching your dream.
If you are too obsessed with results, and you don’t get the results you want soon enough, it’s easy to think there is something wrong—something wrong with you, or something wrong with your strategy. So you switch strategies and start over. And that is exactly the problem that keeps you from reaching your dreams – lack of focus. I’ve even given this habit a name: I call it Shifty.
It’s a lot like starting an investment account. If you keep changing your mind and withdrawing the money, you’ll end up with nothing. But, if you stick to making deposits into the account, it will grow and you will have the equity you need and more.
There is a compounding effect to being consistent, did you know 1 penny over 29 days is 3 million but over 31 days is over 10 million! This compounding effect applies to the effort you put in building “equity” in your brand aka YOU, the ultimate investment you can make in yourself.
And if Van Googh had changed his mind because he wasn’t reaching an end goal, he would never have been a famous artist. Because he never sold a painting while he was alive, only after he passed.
I’m not saying I want you to spend your whole life working at your art without seeing any results, but it helps to realize it doesn’t happen overnight – great things take time to nurture (like a bamboo plant that grows some 90 feet in 6 weeks, but only after 5 years of building strong roots.
When you start building your brand and put the effort into marketing it, and you don’t see the results you are looking for right away, do you throw in the towel?
Here’s an easy solution:
Fall in love with your work.
If you can’t fall in love with yourself and your unique marketing plan, you won’t want to do the work. If you’re in love with your work, you won’t throw in the towel.
Here are some tips:
BRING IN PASSIONS: Bring the things that you enjoy into your business. Love the outdoors? Do your marketing videos out in nature. I love wine, so I created a meetup called “Wine Over Branding,” where we get together drink good wine, come up with excellent words and best of all, meet new people with similar interests.
THINK BIG: Reconnect with why you got into business in the first place. It’s so easy to get caught up the day-to-day minutia. Reflect on how far you’ve come and give yourself a pat on the back. If your dream was to help a certain audience with your expertise, you are probably doing it already. Relish in the experience of it all. Because the experience is the prize, not the result (like making 6 or 7 figures.) The #1 regret people have is forgetting to live in the moment.
THINK SMALL: Use your business as an opportunity to show up everyday and make a difference in someone’s life with just your energy. Thinking of the small things you can do to make someone feel good creates dramatic shifts. Which leads me to my next tip….
SHIFT PERSPECTIVE: Change how you see things so you focus on the assets, not the deficits.
See things in a different way. The best lessons can be masked as “failure,” so always look for things to be grateful for, finding beauty in every experience.
All of these tips connect you to a higher place energetically. When you get to a place of LOVE, you are unstoppable. No willpower or struggle is necessary, just pure joy.
Wow, what a concept, wish I would have figured this out earlier!
